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Registered at SSA.GOV? Good for You, But Keep Your Guard Up
Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2018 19:43:29 +0000
KrebsOnSecurity has long warned readers to plant your own flag at the my Social Security online portal of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) — even if you are not yet drawing benefits from the agency — because identity thieves have been registering accounts in peoples’ names and siphoning retirement and/or disability funds. This is the story of a Midwest couple that took all the right precautions and still got hit by ID thieves who impersonated them to the SSA directly over the phone. In mid-December 2017 this author heard from Ed Eckenstein, a longtime reader in Oklahoma whose wife Ruth had just received a snail mail letter from the SSA about successfully applying to withdraw benefits. The letter confirmed she’d requested a one-time transfer of more than $11,000 from her SSA account. The couple said they were perplexed because both previously had taken my advice and registered accounts with MySocialSecurity, even though Ruth had not yet chosen to start receiving SSA benefits.
Read MoreTech Talk: What's trending for 2018?
Credit to Author: Ken Mingis| Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2018 11:30:00 -0800
When it comes to tech trends we’re likely to see in 2018, nothing would likely be more welcome than the end of passwords. With companies looking for ever better ways to protect data, it seems clear that “password123” has no indefinite future. (Nor does you pet’s name, if that’s what you use.)
But just how quickly passwords will be shunted aside, and by what technology – biometrics? two-factor authentication? algorithms? – remains unclear.
That was topic No. 1 for our panel of tech experts – CSO‘s Michael Nadeau, Infoworld‘s Serdar Syegulalp, Computerworld Executive Editor Ken Mingis and Macworld‘s Michael Simon – as they peer into the near-future to discern what’s coming in 2018 and what’s not.
Tech Talk: IT trends for 2018 – passwords on the way out, blockchain evolves
Our tech panel envisions the end of passwords, looks at how blockchain is evolving, details why 'serverless' computing is a boon to devs and wonders why Apple's HomePod seems late to the game.
Microsoft Patch Alert: Lots of lingering problems in a very messy month
Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2018 10:00:00 -0800
On the heels of a relatively benevolent December Patch Tuesday, the stream of patches pouring out of Microsoft (and Intel!) in January reached epic proportions. To be fair, it looks as if Microsoft got drawn into releasing its Meltdown/Spectre barrage early – on Jan. 3 – but they were so buggy they were withdrawn for AMD processors on Jan. 8, and gradually re-released in phases over the next two weeks.
WD turns to single app portal to create 'mobile moments' for workers
Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2018 03:11:00 -0800
Over the past year and a half, storage hardware maker Western Digital (WD) has been in the throes of a massive integration of three companies onto a single application portal.
After acquiring two multi-billion dollar competitors in the past five years – HGST and SanDisk – WD chose to create a new, single application web portal instead of choosing from among the three already in use by each company.
One of the drivers for starting from scratch with a single corporate app portal was to help speed up the integration of future mergers and acquisitions, as well as hardening mobile security. The company also wanted to empower end users by giving them open access to whatever business app they need on any mobile device.
Throwback Thursday: Oops!
Credit to Author: Sharky| Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2018 03:00:00 -0800
This company has just completed its project to build a dedicated secure server room — and it’s really something, reports an IT pilot fish who’s getting the grand-opening tour.
“The construction was led by the building maintenance manager and an IT manager,” fish says. “We were shown the raised floor in case of a flood, and the fireproof and reinforced door with a electronic security key that could keep track of individuals entering the room — and, of course, keep intruders out, as the door had a heavy-duty bolt lock.”
Fish is impressed, right up until the end of the tour. That’s when the door closes as the tour group leaves, and fish turns back for one last look.
Chronicle: A Meteor Aimed At Planet Threat Intel?
Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2018 22:56:52 +0000
Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, said today it is in the process of rolling out a new service designed to help companies more quickly make sense of and act on the mountains of threat data produced each day by cybersecurity tools. Countless organizations rely on a hodgepodge of security software, hardware and services to find and detect cybersecurity intrusions before an incursion by malicious software or hackers has the chance to metastasize into a full-blown data breach.
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